Ford is perfect for this
The constant patriotic nobility of the Jack Ryan character is something that should fit Harrison Ford to a T. Whether skulking through caves, on the run for murder, or undercover in an Amish village, no one seems to do Boy Scout as well as Ford. That the two names never exactly became synonymous with each other is somewhat perplexing- the only reason I could think it never happened was due to these other roles.
But make no mistake, Ford embodies every bit of the truth, justice, and American way as he stands head and shoulders above the rest of the corrupt. And there are quite a bit of those nefarious type characters in “Clear and Present Danger”, a movie that begins with the usual dense, drawn out government agency set-ups that only a true Tom Clancy fan could find really riveting but that improves as it continues to move.
The story has Ryan promoted to Deputy Director of Intelligence when his mentor Admiral Greer (James Earl Jones) falls ill. Shady doings in the South Caribbean sea also force him to come to the conclusion that a presidential donor has been laundering money for the Colombian drug cartels, news to the actual President (Donald Moffat). Ryan applies congress for more funding to the Colombian government, not for more troops.
What he doesn’t know is that Director of Operations Robert Ritter (Henry Czerny) has been told by the president to take care of the cartels, to which he reaches out to mercenary operative John Clark (Willem DaFoe) to conduct secret hit missions with a handpicked crew. The president also wants the $650 million in drug money back, to which he sends Jack to Colombia for that.
Meanwhile, Escobedo (Miguel Sandoval) wants to know who keeps hitting his shipments and he’s not getting any answers from his trusted counselor Felix Cortez (Joaquim de Almeida). Cortez actually has a mole inside the CIA and may in fact be trying to get rid of Escobedo all together and take over the cartel himself.
And that’s just the first hour. The screenplay is a lot of moving parts, adding in tense situation room arguments, shady maneuverings in the halls of Washington power corridors, and heated exchanges. That director Phillip Noyce manages to keep up the intrigue and make things brisk and exciting is a plus. That he manages to also wrap this all up as cleanly as he does even more so.
Sometimes action is all the more appealing when you have to wait for it, which is why the ambush that really kicks things off has such a punch. Not only is it explosive and overblown but the set-up has created a lot to keep us guessing even as it’s led us into it. From there Ford is as spry as ever as he engages in hand to hand combat, thrilling escapes, and even hangs off the bottom of a helicopter before the flick ends.
And the film also offers quite a bit for techno-buffs, or i’m sure it did back in 1994 before much became dated. Air launched missiles and voice matching software both get big scenes but the best is when Ryan logs into a villain’s personal computer, inadvertently alerting him. A furious race then ensues as Ryan tries to print out incriminating evidence while his opponent tries everything in his power to delete it.
Other than Ford there is some good work here by the Almeida, a slick and duplicitous villain, Czerny sinking his teeth into another sinister bureaucrat role again (and before) “Mission Impossible”, Moffat taking entitlement to suitably deplorable lengths, and DaFoe who makes for a dashing political operative. These people often get lost within the cross-cutting plot, but that they make impressions when they’re on screen is certainly something.
It’s Ford’s show though and there’s no more satisfying scene in the whole film than when he gives Moffat a total tongue-lashing for his villainy. Not because any of it feels in any way real, but because even 30 years later it feels both comforting as well as cathartic. For once someone in Washington is standing up for the little guy and for once, a terrible president is getting exactly what he deserves.